myself and my men at
your orders. Our horses will be landed the first thing in the morning,
and we will then ride whithersoever you may bid us."

"Thanks, Sir John," the countess replied. "In that case I would that
you ride by Rennes, towards which the army of the Duke of Normandy is
already advancing. The garrison there is commanded by Sir William of
Caddoudal, a good and valiant knight."

The horses were landed on the following morning, and accompanied by
the four young squires and the men-at-arms, and followed by the twenty
archers on foot, Sir John Powis set out for Rennes. They arrived there,
but just in time, for the assailants were closing round the city. They
were received with the greatest cordiality by the governor, who assigned
apartments to Sir John and the squires, and lodged the men-at-arms and
archers near them.

In a day or two the whole of the French army came up, and the siege
commenced. Sir John Powis, at his own request, was posted with his men
for the defence of a portion of the wall which was especially open to
the assaults of the enemy. These soon commenced in earnest, and the
Genoese and Spanish mercenaries endeavoured to carry the place by
assault. Sometimes one point would be attacked, at others points far
distant. Covered by the fire of the French crossbowmen, the Spaniards
and Germans came on to the assault, carrying ladders, with which they
strove to climb the walls, but the defenders plied them so vigorously
with quarrels from their cross-bows and flights of arrows that they
frequently desisted before reaching the walls. When they pushed on, and
strove to ascend, their luck was no better. Great stones were hurled
down, and boiling oil poured upon them. The ladders were flung back, and
many crushed by the fall, and in none of the assaults did they gain any
footing in the town. Machines were used, but these were not sufficiently
powerful to batter down the walls, and at the end of April the city was
as far from being captured as it was on the day of the commencement of
the siege.

Walter bore his full share in the fighting, but he had no opportunity
of especially distinguishing himself, although Sir John several times
commended him for his coolness when the bolts of the crossbow-men and
the stones from the machines were flying most thickly. But although as
yet uninjured by the enemy's attacks, the prospect of the city holding
out was not bright. The burghers, who had at first fought va